Page 104 of Greed
His hurtful words crushed her.
“Keep going.” He jammed his gun into her and shoved.
She winced from the sting and stumbled forward.
Bide your time. Wait for an opportunity. Stall.
“What do you want, Donnie?” she asked. “Maybe I can help you get it.”
Donnie wasn’t taking the bait. With a one track mind, he pushed her onwards until they came to an intersection where a monorail passed overhead, and an exit to the subway beckoned. Maybe if she screamed, created a diversion, she could escape down there. Then again, maybe that bank on the corner would help. Surely there would be security guards inside.
Donnie halted her. “Stop here. Don’t do anything stupid.”
He was silent for a while as he gauged the street action. There were people rushing about, as you would expect for a Monday in the city. So many people, and he had a look on his face that she didn’t like. He scrutinized the walkers by and kept darting a glance to the monorail and then to the bank. He was up to something.
With both of them standing still, she had time to assess him. He wore a long black trench coat with God knew what hidden inside, and he had an erratic aura about him. The black backpack slung over his shoulder contained something bulky. He hadn’t shaved in days, and she wasn’t even sure he’d washed. The man was about to snap—or already had.
“You know what I want?” he said, surveying the street, eying it like a hawk.
Lilo shrugged, eyeing his gun. “I give up. What do you want? Obviously me for something.”
“I had a lot of time to think this weekend while I recovered from what your asshole did to me.”
She barely contained the surprise on her face. What had Griffin done to him? He’d been with her most of the time. Except… except the night he left her after the kidnapping situation. It still wasn’t adding up.
“I don’t know what you mean, Donnie.”
“Oh, come on, Lilo. You call yourself an investigative reporter,” he scoffed. “You’re not that blind, are you?”
“Spell it out for me.”
“Your new man is one of them.”
She pressed her lips tight. Damn him if he thought she’d give away anything. Instead, she bided her time, always vigilant, waiting for him to step into a position where she could relieve him of his weapon.
“Fine.” Donnie rounded on her, waving the gun in the air. “Don’t admit it, but you were there. You saw what they did to me.”
“What they did to you?”
“Jesus, Lilo. I’m the new Greed. The new hero this city needs. The kind of hero who could get the job done. I was doing it better than them, until he came along and fucked with it all.”
Her heart stopped. Donnie was the one who shot those people in cold blood? He shot Nathanial in front of her face… he shot Griffin.
Donnie called murdering getting the job done.
“Why?” she gasped.
But he didn’t answer her, not directly. A red mottled rage covered his expression, and he spilled it all out: “They wanted Lazarus, not me. I’ll always be the second choice for them, just like I was with my parents. No matter how hard I tried to be the better option, I was never enough. Well, fuck them. Fuck them all. I don’t give a rat’s ass what they want. This is about what I want.”
He slipped his hand behind Lilo’s neck. The fury in his eyes softened as he locked onto her, as though he really did have a soft spot for her. It made her skin crawl, and she tried not to show it. This man before her was nothing like the one she’d dated months ago. Okay, maybe a little. It was Lilo who’d changed. Lilo who’d garnered a little self-respect.
“You see, Lilo. I’ve been going about this all wrong,” he said, eyes darting over her face. “I never thought about it until he came on his high horse to assess our productivity.” He choked on a laugh. “Ironic isn’t it? He was the one who made me realize that all this time they were getting all the attention, not me. All that effort we spend chasing a story, only to have our names printed in the teeny-tiny byline. Such little words compared to the big headline, don’t you think?”
Lilo didn’t like where this was going.
“That’s what I want, Lilo. The headline. And if I can’t have the fame, then I’ll have the infamy and the fortune.”
Donnie slammed his lips on hers, and she tried to pull away, tried to struggle, but damn him, he was so much stronger than her.
